In 1996, the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago purchased as a heritage building the family home of Seepersad and Droapatie Naipaul at 26 Nepaul Street, St James. The house is the house made famous in V.S. Naipaul’s novel A House for Mr Biswas. It is the house where the…
Show MoreIn 1996, the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago purchased as a heritage building the family home of Seepersad and Droapatie Naipaul at 26 Nepaul Street, St James. The house is the house made famous in V.S. Naipaul’s novel A House for Mr Biswas. It is the house where the writer and journalist Seepersad Naipaul lived from 1946 till his death in 1953, the house where V.S. Naipaul lived from 1946 till 1950 when he departed for Oxford, the place where Shiva Naipaul another writer son of Seepersad grew up.
Friends of Mr Biswas is an NGO which was incorporated by Act of Parliament (Act No. 52 of 2000). In 2002 the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago granted Friends of Mr Biswas a 99 year lease to develop the house along these lines specified in the Act:
The aims and objectives of the Association are to manage and
develop the Naipaul House at Nepaul Street as a Museum and
International Study Centre for: (a) education; (b) cultural tourism
(local and international); and (c) research on the writings of the
Naipaul family, Trinidad and Tobago Literature, and West Indian
Literature.
The Patron of Friends of Mr Biswas is Senator the Honourable Dr. Bhoendradatt Tewarie, Minister of Planning and Sustainable Development, GORTT.
Distinguished Lifetime Friend of Mr Biswas: Mr Colin Laird, Chairman, Friends of Mr Biswas 2001 - 2008, whose ideas and skills preserved the building and directed its development.
Chairman: Professor Kenneth Ramchand
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